I was so FUCKING bored AND tired (like barely keeping my eyes open; falling asleep, then writing more, then eventually hitting: POST!--lol) when I wrote that, can you tell?

The best part about this is that I didn't need pot or anything to make such a crazy post/comment. This was fully driven by my sleep disorder. Basically, I start to go into an "REM" like state when I get really tired (or in my case, when the right time of day hit). Sometimes I'm unable to catch myself before I do something...goofy and or funny.

THUS, you now have this wonderful post created from my sub-conscious and conscious self-working hard together to create a masterpiece!

Personally, I always find it amazing that I'm able to put sentences together and that at some points they are actually understandable, so long as you take them into consideration in a mystical and crazy freaking world/Universe where certain rules are true... The best you can do to re-create this experience is to get a mild form of Narcolepsy that MOSTLY preys on your dream and "sub-conscious" aspects belonging to the REM stage or staging... Then you have to deal with LOTS of "night terrors", hypnagogic hallucinations, and other issues (like Cataplexy). Then, you too can write mystical, strange, and WTF(?!) writings like I have above!!!


Enjoy!

I also have narcolepsy, but out of the different "versions" you can find, I think mine may be the easiest to handle (though it may depend on person to person). I do get tired, but strangely I also suffer from extreme chronic headaches, which are powerful enough to keep me awake (bad however, as taking naps are almost always out of the question).

My issues revolve around the fact that when I go to sleep I stay in REM, or phase 2 sleep, almost all night long. I will have very vivid dreams that occur all night long (usually I'll sleep for two hours, get woken up by the dream, rinse and repeat). With this comes the more terrible aspects. I have constant bouts of sleep paralysis every night, and on top of this I suffer from hypnagogic hallucinations like crazy (even when I "think" I'm fully awake).

Very rarely the narcolepsy causes sleeping fits, but it is rare. It may be possible that cataplexy is involved, but I doubt it--it simply happens to rarely (although it does mimic it fairly closely).

Anyway, hypnagogic hallucinations and sleep paralysis are NOT for everyone (as I had a hypnagogic hallucination so strong it felt like someone was yanking me through my bed, sound familiar?). This is where the origins of succubi, demons, angels, and aliens taking you away in the night come from. So, if you do not have a healthy intellect and open mind, you may just end up being, literally, scared of sleeping (unless you are on something akin to Xyrem).

My father has it as well, his symptoms are a little more classical, much like the poster above.

I also have narcolepsy, but without the cataplexy, for which I am most grateful! I also had blephorospasms, which is when my eyes close unexpectedly, without the sleep. It was quite frightening, as it happened a number of times while I was driving. I saw a neurologist soon after these symptoms began, and it has been controlled quite well, with Botox injections around the outer edges of my eyes. This is very different from the Botox which is used on wrinkles. Within a month or so, those disappeared, although my eyelids are often heavy and I find it more comfortable to keep them closed, whenever possible. The narcolepsy is still with me: I take a medication called Provigil, when certainly helps. But I have a hard time making myself go to bed, when I begin feeling sleepy. I often fall asleep at my desk top computer with my head falling on the keyboard, leaving the strangest comments, which I enjoy posting, much to people's confusion. I have also often fallen out of my chair, and been rudely awakened by the sudden stop. Fortunately, I never been seriously hurt, and that hasn't happened for many months. I'm an older woman of 79, with osteoporosis, but I haven't broken anything in these unexpected naps, as I call them. The young woman in the video, who is a dancer and making a teaching video, it seems, is a much worse situation that I, for which I am grateful. I have here seen this site before, and I hope I'm not intruding...just thought folks might like to hear another perspective.

From the link that blankfist posted above:

Cataplexy in severe cases can cause vital signs to be hard to detect without a continuous auditory pulse oximeter. As an anecdotal example, one June Burchell, a sufferer of severe Cataplexy, has been pronounced dead three times.

Oooo! I want to try that. First, I must find someone with Cataplexy.

I saw a videoclip of this lady who had a laughing-disorder.. She burst out in uncontrollable laughter, whenever wherever.. She had a big sign around her neck that she held up when she was laughing, explaining her disease.

I might have considered tattooing something like "Cataplexy and Narcolepsy Suck!" on my forehead if I was that guy..

Have a friend that was having a major manipulation done to her shoulder, sort of a pre-surgery relocation or something that entailed the doc putting his knee in her chest and tugging or whatnot. They gave her a drug, I think maybe orally administered that allowed her to be sentient and conversant and cooperative, but she didn't remember a thing. Struck me as something from a science fiction movie or spy thriller. I think it also dulled the pain, but I remember thinking "if you caused a lot of pain to the patient, but they don't remember it, were they ever in pain" I don't remember what it was called. Forgettitol^tm? [edit:] It's called Versed.

In reply to this comment by snoozedoctor:
No, general anesthesia is not like physiologic sleep, the latter being a complex and active function of neurons located in the brain stem, in and around the thalamus. If you are unlucky enough, a small stroke in this area, while not damaging a significant portion of the brain, can result in permanent coma.

For an interesting sleep disorder, look up fatal familial insomnia. It's rare, and one you don't want to get.

The mechanisms of the some of the general anesthetics are still unknown. For instance, we don't know how the most widely used ones, the halogenated hydrocarbon gases, (halothane, isoflurane, sevoflurane, etc.) have their effect. Their potency is significantly related to their lipid solubility, which suggests they get in your neural cell lipid membranes, and alter them (temporarily) such that they can't carry on communication with other neurons. They've been used for 150 years now, and we still don't know exactly how they work!
Many of the IV anesthetics inhibit specific receptors and antagonize specific neurotransmitters, such that we do know how most of them work.

Cheers,

In reply to this comment by schmawy:
No, I don't have that kind of depth of knowledge. Sleep and dreams are so mysterious and fascinating, though. Is anesthesia anything like sleep, or nothing at all? Does a patient have REM under the gas?

In reply to this comment by snoozedoctor:
Watched this last night and forgot to upvote. I was diverted by looking for video of the goats with the myotonia, undoubtedly a similar phenomena. Alas, there was already a similar sift, so I dropped it. You ARE going medical on us.

No, general anesthesia is not like physiologic sleep, the latter being a complex and active function of neurons located in the brain stem, in and around the thalamus. If you are unlucky enough, a small stroke in this area, while not damaging a significant portion of the brain, can result in permanent coma.

For an interesting sleep disorder, look up fatal familial insomnia. It's rare, and one you don't want to get.

The mechanisms of the some of the general anesthetics are still unknown. For instance, we don't know how the most widely used ones, the halogenated hydrocarbon gases, (halothane, isoflurane, sevoflurane, etc.) have their effect. Their potency is significantly related to their lipid solubility, which suggests they get in your neural cell lipid membranes, and alter them (temporarily) such that they can't carry on communication with other neurons. They've been used for 150 years now, and we still don't know exactly how they work!
Many of the IV anesthetics inhibit specific receptors and antagonize specific neurotransmitters, such that we do know how most of them work.

Cheers,

In reply to this comment by schmawy:
No, I don't have that kind of depth of knowledge. Sleep and dreams are so mysterious and fascinating, though. Is anesthesia anything like sleep, or nothing at all? Does a patient have REM under the gas?

In reply to this comment by snoozedoctor:
Watched this last night and forgot to upvote. I was diverted by looking for video of the goats with the myotonia, undoubtedly a similar phenomena. Alas, there was already a similar sift, so I dropped it. You ARE going medical on us.

No, I don't have that kind of depth of knowledge. Sleep and dreams are so mysterious and fascinating, though. Is anesthesia anything like sleep, or nothing at all? Does a patient have REM under the gas?

In reply to this comment by snoozedoctor:
Watched this last night and forgot to upvote. I was diverted by looking for video of the goats with the myotonia, undoubtedly a similar phenomena. Alas, there was already a similar sift, so I dropped it. You ARE going medical on us.

there are treatments for narcolepsy and cataplexy (see the cross-linked Daschund post for a narcolepsy medical comment http://www.videosift.com/story.php?id=3850 ). unfortunately, the main treatment is apparently GHB, a highly controlled substance that vets may not be able to prescribe for a little pup.

As a side note, this complete fall indicates Rusty has more classic narcolepsy. Skeeter, the Narcoleptic Poodle, most likely has narcolepsy with cataplexy symptoms ('cat'-aplexy being a little ironic in his case). Cataplexy is common in narcoleptics, and can be described as a slower, longer onset of narcoleptic paralysis when angered or excited.

Oh sweet. Wikipedia rules. This link says all that and more (gives a picture of a kid with cataplexy) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cataplexy

Apparently cataplexy is treated in an interesting way (with GHB, a widly abused euphoric intoxicant).